Morpher

Today, we learnt how to use the morpher tool. Starting off, we had a model of a basic human head, which was then converted into an additional poly and cloned (as a copy) three more times. Using the polygon selector, the bottom part of the mouth was selected. Then, using the grow tool in the editable poly menu, the rest of the lower jaw was selected. This could then be moved to make the mouth more open. I renamed each of the heads according to what was going to affect them, which was an open mouth, closed eyes and raised brows. Once all of these had been edited, the morpher tool was then applied. This was firstly applied to the original head, with the slots being filled with the other heads and how much was adjusted.

This was then smoothed using the turbo smooth, to make it look more shaped like a head, and then the auto key was enabled to begin animating. The only problem with animating is that on the timeline, we cannot see which feature is being animated, as all of the keys are the same colour. To combat this, the curve editor is opened and all of the different movements can be seen and adjusted seperately. For the animation, I made a short clip of 100 frames showing a person opening their eyes and mouth, then closing them again as they raise their brow - a bit like someone starting to wake up in the morning. To ensure that the animation is fluid, I made sure that all of the movement settings on the first and last frame of the animation were exactly the same.